I had a few morning issues with 1) forgetting my wallet (a first for me) and 2) getting my chain lodged between my chainrings and crank arm. Needed a bit of help and finally yanked it out seconds before the start. So I started at the very back and needed the first two laps just to get to the front. Was up front for the third,10 or 12 back and saw a break just after a sharp curve. I bridged a small gap but caught onto the lead group. I thought there were four of us and one dropped after a minute or two but I could be wrong about that. Three of us took some pulls and tried to keep our distance over the main field and did. One dropped off after trying a little break too far from the line, so two of us remained. We traded pulls then I sat on his wheel until midway up the last little hill and passed him but almost ran out of gas at the line. I held on for the win by maybe a wheel length.

Ok, that's not how it really happened - I didn't really run out of gas. I looked back 20 m from the line and thought I had a large gap. I eased with 5 or 10m to go and got up out of the drops. I didn't have a gap. He came around me and I very nearly got passed. A few meters more and I would have. I am super embarrassed about it. Such a stupid thing to do. Im not sure what I though I saw behind me but it obviously wasn't reality. The ref asked me about it (the other guy covered their view of my bib so he wanted to know it was me), I said I was sorry, it was a big mistake, and that I would be fine if he DQed me for it. He said no, it wasn't DQ worthy but I should perhaps race til the end next time. I said I definitely agree.

So a big learning experience that didn't end up half bad for me.

lots of things...except winning maybe :)